Montreal to examine banning plastic grocery bags

The city of Montreal announced today it will begin an official consultation on banning single-use plastic bags in the retail sector.

City councillor Elsie Lefebvre has the job of organizing the consultation which will examine environmental, social and economic impacts of an eventual ban.  It will also look at what has happened in other cities that have banned plastic bags.

Toronto tried to ban plastic bags on Jan. 1, 2013, but backed down after a public outcry and a legal challenge. 

“Single-use grocery bags represent an important environmental issue when they don’t make it into the recycling,” said Réal Ménard, the executive committee member responsible for the environment and sustainable development.

Mayor Denis Coderre said he wants to find out who's in favour and who's against banning bags.

"What I know is that we have an issue.  What are we going to do about it?" said Coderre.

"You have some people who will have a look through the economic perspective. You will have another group who will go strictly on environment. What does it mean, concretely?" said Coderre.

A representative of the plastics industry says an outright ban on bags is not the solution.

Pierre Fillion says the solution needs to look at legislation as well as how to reuse and properly dispose of plastic bags.

"If we put them in the blue bin, if we reuse them as garbage bags, and we include the plastic industry processors, recyclers, the sorting centres, this is a real good opportunity for everybody to demonstrate that when we work this as a global value chain, then all the results are positive for everybody," said Fillion. 

The consultation is expected to start in May.